Democrats Senate Dreams Fading? Platner & Talarico Implode

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast: “Democrats Senate Dreams Fading? Platner & Talarico Implode”

Date: June 26, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: John Leganski

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Episode Overview

This “Fun Time Friday” episode centers on the implosion of prominent Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico (Texas) and Graham Platner (Maine). The Ruthless crew delivers their signature irreverent, sharply conservative commentary and brutal roast of Democratic candidate selection, highlighting a series of public gaffes, questionable personal judgments, and intra-party drama. The episode also features the usual banter, the “King of the Hill” Twitter game, and a deep-dive interview with former House floor director John Leganski about the chaos and lessons of recent Republican congressional leadership elections.

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Main Segments & Highlights

1. Democratic Senate Candidate Meltdown: Talarico & Platner

• Opening Roast: The show kicks off immediately by lampooning recurring “characters” Platner and Talarico, branding them as emblematic of Democratic dysfunction.
  “Platner and Talrico, two just glorious figures recurring characters on the Ruthless variety program.”
  —Josh Holmes [00:00]

• On Talarico’s Outlandish Statements

  • Schumer’s hand-picked candidate is accused of being deeply out of touch with Texas values.
  • The hosts zero in on soundbites where Talarico describes himself as “a Christian who hates Christianity.”
    “If you’re running in Texas and you’re like, I just got to get this off my chest. I hate Christianity. That’s not going to fly. That’s not a great message.”
    —Comfortably Smug [07:06]
  • Talarico calls opponents of progressive bathroom legislation “monsters,” leading to harsh critiques from the panel.
  • Notably, Talarico reportedly described Jesus as “a socialist anarchist from ancient Palestine.”
    “For folks who don’t get what the hell he’s talking about, he’s referring to Jesus Christ as a socialist anarchist from Palestine.”
    —Comfortably Smug [11:16]

• Rumors and Identity Politics

  • Hosts speculate about rumors related to Talarico’s personal background, suggesting he’s hiding aspects of his identity due to perceived electability issues.

• Democratic Candidate Recruitment Critique

  • The hosts compare the Democrats’ problematic class of 2026 Senate nominees to the GOP’s infamous candidates from 2010/2012.
  • “I’m just not sure anybody’s fielded a crew of candidates that are as horrible as the Democrats are.”
    —Josh Holmes [03:58]

2. Graham Platner’s (Maine) Scandals Unpacked

• Deflection on Planned Parenthood

  • Platner attempts to rebrand Planned Parenthood as a primary care provider, awkwardly referencing his own STI treatments there. “He used Planned Parenthood to go get an STD check…And in the backdrop of the last three weeks, where I’ve taken heat over sexual and physical assault of women.”
    —Josh Holmes [17:11]
  • The panel highlights his seeming discomfort and botched delivery as a sign of dishonesty.

• Revolting Reddit Past

  • The hosts break down a vile, offensive “joke” Platner posted on Reddit, reading it aloud to emphasize the candidate’s self-destructive baggage. “I was eating out my grandmother and it tasted like horse cum. That’s how she died.”
    —Reading of Platner’s actual Reddit post [21:10]
  • The panel is appalled that national Democrats continue to rally behind Platner despite his problematic history.
    “Surely there are 500 Democrats in the state of Maine who could run for office. How is it that this is their guy?”
    —John Ashbrook [22:04]

• Predator ‘Ally’ Stereotype

  • Repeated jokes about men loudly branding themselves as “allies” at progressive rallies being suspect. “That’s like the number one sign of a predator. You know what I mean? If a dude slinks up and says ‘I’m an ally’...background check.”
    —Comfortably Smug [19:29]

Key Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He’s a rich guy’s idea of what a poor person is like...Talarico is a progressive, leftist idea of what a religious person is like.”
  —Josh Holmes [07:15]

• “To run as a Dem is essentially a race to be the most vile person alive.”
  —Comfortably Smug [23:00]

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3. Democratic Party Infighting & Identity Politics (Jasmine Crockett Feud), Texas

• Jasmine Crockett, a prominent Texas Democrat, is reported to be privately and publicly at odds with the Talarico nomination, allegedly telling supporters not to back him and resenting the establishment for overlooking her. “She's now coming to the realization that the establishment just stabbed her in the back, threw her overboard...she’s been telling folks, apparently, in Texas, do not support [Talarico] because of xyz reasons…”
  —Comfortably Smug [13:32]

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4. King of the Hill: Ruthless Twitter Game Show (35:00–42:00)

• Signature Ruthless Twitter competition pitting Steve Schmidt and “Sherry Jacobus” tweet takes against each other.

• Notable exchanges about the arbitrary and often lawless nature of in-show judging.

  _“I can’t wait to play this way. This is a kangaroo court.”_   
  —Josh Holmes [37:21]
  

• More meta and inside-baseball, featuring playful accusations of game-rigging and running gags about fairness.

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5. Feature Interview: John Leganski, “Glory, Grief and the Gavel” (44:20–1:10:01)

Major Topics Covered:

• Leganski’s first-hand account as House floor director during the 2023 Republican speakership chaos.
• The unique, high-pressure, and cannibalistic dynamics of the Republican House Conference.
  • “The House Republican Conference is a cannibalistic bunch. We chew up and spit out our leaders.”
    —John Leganski [54:28]
• How modern House speakership elections, under current partisan incentives and media climate, have become endurance tests resembling parliamentary coalitions.
• Perspective on the evolution of legislative chaos: parallels to European parliaments, danger of small but radical factions, powerlessness of leadership.
  • “You could cure cancer and you’d have a united Hakeem Jeffries conference in direct opposition…”
    —Josh Holmes [53:30]
• The psychological dimension of leadership:
  • “I would have majored in psychology … because that’s all this job is — understanding people.”
    —John Leganski [66:29]
• The erosion of traditional legislative relationships due to bifurcated media and direct-to-base fundraising and messaging.
• Reflection on the negative incentives for members: performative politics over substantial accomplishment.
  • _"What is that sugar high that gets the small dollar donations? That gets me on TV that night?" —John Leganski [62:42]
• Advice from Andy Card (former White House Chief of Staff) on never writing off difficult members—relate everyone’s votes to their own districts and long-term coalition building.

Notable Quotes:

• “I lost ten pounds that week…I don’t have ten pounds to lose.”
  —John Leganski on speakership chaos [50:16]
• “Our best leverage is if we can put up 218 votes on our own to pass a bill—because that’s how you enforce your deal.”
  —John Leganski [69:03]

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6. Comic Relief & Variety

• Comfortably Smug spills a full can of Celsius during a previous interview, leading to rapid-fire self-deprecation and “cat-like reflex” jokes. [28:09–31:17]

  _“I saved the day.”_  
  —Comfortably Smug [30:44]
  

• Soccer commentary quip:

  _“But as we know, the English historically struggle here in Massachusetts.”_  
  —John Ashbrook [43:24]
  

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Notable Quotes & Time Stamps

• Josh Holmes (on Platner’s Reddit post):
  "I was eating out my grandmother and it tasted like horse cum. That’s how she died." [21:10]
• Comfortably Smug (on progressive candidate selection):
  “To run as a Dem is essentially a race to be the most vile person alive.” [23:00]
• Josh Holmes (on Twitter game mayhem):
  “This is a kangaroo court. You should be ashamed.” [37:21]
• John Leganski (on the chaos of modern Congress):
  “The House Republican Conference is a cannibalistic bunch. We chew up and spit out our leaders.” [54:28]
• John Leganski (on the importance of psychology):
  "I would have majored in psychology…because that’s all this job is.” [66:29]

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Key Timestamps

• [00:00–15:00] — Main discussion of Talarico and Platner; audio clips and commentary on Democratic candidate gaffes.
• [17:00–24:00] — Platner’s Planned Parenthood remarks, Reddit controversy, and the Democratic “ally” stereotype.
• [25:00–36:00] — Twitter game, inside jokes about podcast fairness.
• [44:20–1:10:01] — John Leganski interview covering House floor drama, leadership psychology, and his new book.

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Tone & Style

• Unfiltered, biting, irreverent: Banter is heavy with sarcasm, pointed analogies, and explicit ridicule of Democratic candidates as both inept and ideologically extreme.
• Inside-baseball, meta-podcast humor: Frequent asides about the show’s own structure, audience, and methods.
• Cynical but self-aware: The hosts lampoon the excesses of politics, including their own, occasionally breaking the fourth wall.
• Policy-light, personality-heavy: Focus is on the spectacle, oddities, and social dynamics of contemporary politics, not specific legislative analysis.

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For New Listeners

This episode is a classic Ruthless roast: mocking Democratic campaign blunders, highlighting intra-party drama, and laughing at the absurdities of modern political media. If you want a bombastic, right-leaning take on the latest campaign follies—and some “behind the scenes” insight into how congressional sausage is made—this is a packed and representative installment.

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Further Exploration

• John Leganski’s book: Glory, Grief and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House — recommended for anyone interested in congressional procedure and political intrigue.
• Listener Question: What’s the worst joke you’ve ever heard? (Prompted by the Platner Reddit controversy)
• Subscribe on YouTube for video content and future “King of the Hill” games.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

Platner and Talrico, two just glorious figures reoccurring characters on the Ruthless variety program.

[Comfortably Smug]

Talrico stuff is like, dude, where do

[John Ashbrook]

they find these guys?

[Comfortably Smug]

And like, this is Schumer. Hand picked this clown. There is something super unsettling about this guy. Like when he said that thing in that interview where he's like, I'm always thinking about, like, I love trans kids.

[Michael Duncan]

He should just, just stop lying because he's really bad at it.

[Josh Holmes]

So Graham Platner's like, you know what? Hold my beer.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. He's like, I can't let this guy

[John Ashbrook]

get his head on.

[Josh Holmes]

I haven't. There has not been a week since you've my name that I haven't given you something. And now I'm going to give you a real heavy dose.

[Comfortably Smug]

When you get a dude who shows up at these things and he's like, I'm an ally. That's like the number one sign of a predator. Likely worst candidate of all time.

[Josh Holmes]

Of all time.

[Michael Duncan]

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[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

This program has become one of the

[Josh Holmes]

most influential podcasts in America.

[John Leganski]

I love the personality.

[Comfortably Smug]

You guys are killing it.

[Michael Duncan]

I just saw your number one.

[Comfortably Smug]

So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity. Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Michael Duncan]

The only political podcast worth listening to

[Comfortably Smug]

is the Ruthless Podcast.

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event, the

[Michael Duncan]

Ruthless Podcast

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial, it is indeed going to be a fun time. There was a lot to choose from this week because the Democrats, they had primaries, and then we've already covered the hosted candidates that they've tried to put out and have gotten through primaries, and it was like a real piecing of things together. I hope everybody enjoyed yesterday's show. I know we had a good time putting that one together. Just how insane the New York contingency is. But it sort of edged out Platner and Talrico. Two just glorious figures reoccurring characters on the ruthless variety program. And they have more

[Comfortably Smug]

also, especially. I mean, we'll get to the Talrico stuff is like, dude, where do they find these guys? And like, this is Schumer handpicked, this clown. This is Schumer's kid. And like, really?

[Josh Holmes]

So, like, you know, look, I understand midterms are challenging. You know, there's 120 years of electoral history when you're the party in power, you lose 16 to 18 seats. I know the math. I'm just not sure that anybody's fielded a. A crew of candidates that are as horrible.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

As Democrats are. And it's an embodiment of what the Democratic Party has become. It's not like they've just had, you know, like, Republicans in what, 2010, 2012, when they had that sort of rash of the Todd Aikens and the witch and Sharon angle and all those like, that was just a really. That was a rough batch of recruits.

[Comfortably Smug]

Those are two cycles specifically where it was like, all of a sudden we have good chances. Then all of a sudden we get like two or three nightmare candidates that you're like, how did this happen? And they just try to drag the whole team down with them. Okay, so now Dems, it feels like, all right, way worse. Like in 2014, I got involved with candidate recruitment. We straightened that shit out.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

That was the history brought down the hammer, I think. I think the one difference, though, guys, is, like, in that instance, we didn't choose them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And Sharon Angle, you know, she was not a great campaigner. Right. And Todd Akin said something he shouldn't have said. Like, I think the biggest loser of the week is Democratic researchers who are unable to get some of this opposition research out before the primary.

[Josh Holmes]

Fair enough.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean? Like, this stuff was all in their file somewhere.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And now it's a Republican's turn to start getting this opposition research out.

[Josh Holmes]

You're. It is. It's amazing that you're still finding things out about Tal. Rico.

[Comfortably Smug]

I really would have thought, dude, this first Talarico thing is just. To me, it like the reason I brought up the Schumer thing is it's so egregious. I really think they just didn't find it because if somebody.

[Smash]

You're not.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're not running.

[John Ashbrook]

This guy in Texas, he's a career politician.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So every Democrat in Texas knows who he. I mean, Texas is a pretty big state. There are a lot of people who live there, including a lot of Democrats. You can't. There have to be 1,000 Democrats who are in a better position to run for Senate than this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

They couldn't, they couldn't get one of them.

[Comfortably Smug]

We should get. We should just run the clip.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so let's start with clip one.

[Smash]

Yeah. And that's. You know, I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity. Right. And like, I always get, always get drawn back into it.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, oh, is that so? A Christian that hates Christianity. Remember, what the Democrats loved about this guy was that they understood that they had abandoned the center of the country and the values based electorate, even where their policies somehow intersect with the working class or so they think that they didn't have any spokespeople who actually believed the things that they believe. And they're like, look, this guy talks about the Bible and they're like, oh, remember there was like three months of Democrats, like, rejoicing that they had found somebody who talks about the Bible.

[Comfortably Smug]

Turns out he just hates it. The thing is, again, Schumer, this is the kind of guy you run for, like a congressional seat in New York City. If he says, like, I hate Christianity, that's a Mumdani endorsement.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I love that.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's got a shot there for sure. If you're running in Texas and you're like, I just got to get this off my chest. I hate Christianity. That's not going to fly. That's not. That's not a great message.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, every one of these guys, though, it's like, you know what I've said about Platner is that he's a rich guy's idea of what a poor person is like.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Talarico is a progressive, leftist idea of what a religious person is like.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a good comparison.

[Michael Duncan]

He said this on a podcast. It's not like an op ed he wrote for a student newspaper when we was high school. It up like, how did they not have this?

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't. You didn't have to go search senior Thesis.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

To find this.

[Comfortably Smug]

And there's even more.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, clip two.

[Smash]

I have to work with, with. With folks who, who have passed these policies that threaten the existence of people that I love. Now, they don't threaten my existence for the most part, but they, they threaten the existence of my friends, my loved ones. And when I got elected, I. I went searching for those monsters, right? I got elected to the state house. I was like, all right, I'm ready to find these monstrous people who, who passed these, you know, the show me your papers legislation, right, the bathroom bill.

[Comfortably Smug]

So for context, what he is talking about there is folks who oppose letting men into little girls room.

[Josh Holmes]

Kids pass bathrooms.

[Comfortably Smug]

He calls them monsters.

[Michael Duncan]

You don't want. They're the monsters.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't want to creep in your child's bathroom. You're a monster.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

You're the one that's wrong.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's just so odd. And like, this all goes back to, like, I don't know what the hell he actually stands for. If he's just like an extremely odd guy. I think, like, he strikes me. I have no factual basis to believe.

[Michael Duncan]

Here we go.

[Comfortably Smug]

But whenever you see the, like, documentaries and they're like, and that man was Jeffrey Dahmer. You know what I mean? Like, it's just like a weird, slight

[Josh Holmes]

looking, like there's a big reveal that he's serial killing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh. Then they're like, then they went to his house and they opened the fridge and there's like 10 people in there. You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

Like, yeah, there was something unsettling.

[Comfortably Smug]

There is something super unsettling about this guy. Like when he said that thing in that interview where he's like, I'm always thinking about, like, I love trans kids. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, cash, get, get the warrant. Go. Go through his Internet search history. I also.

[Michael Duncan]

Can we play that clip again? I'll tell you when to stop, when to stop it.

[Smash]

I have to work with, with, with folks who, who have passed these policies that threaten the existence of people that I love. Now. They don't threaten my existence for the most part.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, stop it there. For the most part. What part?

[Josh Holmes]

What part is he talking about? That's not the most part.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow. Interesting, bro. You can't get one past the old man.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, no, I picked up this. You're right, Duncan, I didn't pick that up. Well, because.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's talk about that.

[Josh Holmes]

Because the basis of what he says is that because he's a white man, that he doesn't suffer the same kind of scrutiny that all his brothers and sisters in the Latino community and the gay community and the LGBT and trans and whatever. So what part of it is that they don't? I don't know.

[Comfortably Smug]

There are many rumors in Texas about what community he's part of.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[Comfortably Smug]

And that he feels he can't publicly acknowledge because he thinks it hurts chances. But if you say that you hate Christianity, that's hurting your chances. You might as well say it all. Come on, James, just say it all.

[Josh Holmes]

He met his girlfriend in a gay bar. He didn't say, I didn't say that he did.

[Michael Duncan]

We are just stating facts.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what he, that's what he said.

[Michael Duncan]

Unsettling. He's an unsettling guy, dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

Super unsettling.

[Josh Holmes]

It's very unsettling. Not to be outdone, I mean he's, look, he's got more.

[Smash]

Clip 3 It's very strange, every time I think about it that, that the most popular figure in our country, particularly on the conservative right, is this, you know, socialist anarchist from ancient Palestine.

[Comfortably Smug]

And for folks who don't get what the hell he's talking about, he's referring to Jesus Christ.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

As a socialist anarchist.

[John Ashbrook]

It's from, from Palestine.

[Josh Holmes]

From Palestine.

[John Ashbrook]

So he trips the three top Democrat talking points right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Bing, bang, bang.

[John Ashbrook]

Hey, you know what?

[Comfortably Smug]

Hey, Jesus Palestinian.

[John Ashbrook]

He's trans, he's anarchist. Like he's all the things that they want him to be.

[Michael Duncan]

He's the most insufferable progressive, like you know, like junior church leader. That's, that's who he is. He's like the one with the rainbow pride sashon giving lectures to the kids about progressive Christianity. I, I, I find those people insufferable.

[Josh Holmes]

Do they? I haven't really encountered a lot of them.

[Michael Duncan]

I've seen them. Have you, well, have you ever been like traveling and go to like a service on Sunday where you don't normally attend? I've run, run into some of these.

[Josh Holmes]

I generally try to avoid stuff where I would have a lecture about Palestinian trans anarchists.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you know, you know, your friend. I, I have left churches before.

[Josh Holmes]

Really?

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, I mean quietly, but that's, I want to be respectful.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure. Not like Don Lemon style, but like. No, I mean, it's just, it's a hard thing for most of us to conceive of an upbringing in a social structure that supports the things that this guy says on a day to day basis. Like it seems almost such a niche Constituency of things in Texas that it's like, where. Where you come from, dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And that's the thing is, at the end of the day, this guy is running statewide in Texas, and if I'm Jasmine Crockett, I would be furious. Like, there's. We'll probably get into it next week. She's been coming up publicly with how unhappy she is with the way that turned out. She's now coming to the realization that the establishment essentially just, like, stabbed her in the back, threw her overboard, and she hasn't come out and said that she supports Talrico's campaign. She's been telling folks, apparently, in Texas, do not support.

[Josh Holmes]

Really?

[Comfortably Smug]

She's been like.

[John Ashbrook]

Because she knows there's people close to her who've been.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who've been going out in Texas and being like, black community. Do not sell. You know, do not stand with Talarico because of xyz. Reasons that Chuck Schumer is very litigious about protecting James Talrico for Jazzy Jazz has been spreading the word in Texas about those. About those things that he's a part of that he will not publicly acknowledge. But Trump will see you if you discuss.

[Josh Holmes]

Would those be things that he thinks that they're fit into the. For the most part, caveat.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that's exactly right. Oh, you think? Yep.

[Smash]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm just trying to do the math on this guy because it's hard.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a unique character.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He is the nominee for Senate in the great state of Texas. It's just. It's. It's really hard to believe. So Graham Platner is like, you know what? Hold my beer.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. He's like, I can't let this guy get.

[Josh Holmes]

I have. There has not been a week since you've known my name that I haven't given you something.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh.

[Josh Holmes]

And now I'm going to give you a real heavy dose, one of which I will say I'm very reluctant to cover here.

[Michael Duncan]

No, you're not.

[John Ashbrook]

I am.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't. You think I want to read that?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, you do. Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

That's outrageous. It's a slander. But I'm not going to start with that. This is. I think Smash always has this fun conception of this issue for Democrats, because Planned Parenthood is an abortion store. It always has been. But Democrats, in their realization that just pure abortion for abortion sake, wherever you are, on, like, the pro life, pro, you know, abortion spectrum, like, just having a federally funded abortion store is not, like, the most popular thing. So 10, 15 years ago, they started obfuscating it and calling it, like, Women's health, and then it was, like, reproductive health. And it's still an abortion store.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But you had to open the aperture on what it is that they do for a living.

[Michael Duncan]

The PR campaign began where they redefined what Planned Parenthood did into things like mammograms.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Remember that if you need your appendix out, you can go there. If you have a strep throat, you know, it's a minute clinic. Okay. It's just like going to cvs or

[Michael Duncan]

if you, like, take a step back and just think about how Orwellian that. It's called Planned Parenthood.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's precisely the opposite of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's planning to not have.

[Michael Duncan]

Pretty unplanned. In fact, they're going to not plan to have children.

[Josh Holmes]

So anyway, Platner, who's a committed leftist, has to speak to this at some level, and in a way, that is not just an abortion store. So. Clipboard.

[Guest Singer]

Part of that, as many of you know, is that I firmly believe in the universal health care system. I believe in it because I have, in many ways received it with my VA benefits. But I will also say that many of my female friends and my wife, throughout their lives have received some form of that same kind of support from Planned Parenthood. I have friends who even today get primary care through Planned Parenthood. I myself, at a younger age, received. Received pre. What's the word? I got STI checks at the Portland Planned Parenthood.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

So, you know, you. You're feeling sick.

[Michael Duncan]

You.

[John Ashbrook]

You go in for a checkup. You know, it's just like going to the doctor. You know, they do everything there.

[Michael Duncan]

Primary imaging. Get out of here. Primary care, it's.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just. They've been doing this for 15 years.

[Josh Holmes]

But he's talking about how he got. He used Planned Parenthood to go get an STD check, which.

[Comfortably Smug]

And he first had treatment.

[Michael Duncan]

Treatment.

[Josh Holmes]

He had treatment.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then he's like, it was a slip I caught.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, buddy.

[Josh Holmes]

He got, like, halfway through that journey as, like, I'm gonna be a firsthand witness to the greatness of the care. And they realize that the story that verifies his personal interaction is probably not great. Standing in front of 15 women in the backdrop of the last three weeks, where I've taken heat over sexual and physical assault of women.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, right.

[John Leganski]

He's.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. When I blew out the gonorrhea, that's the first place I went.

[Comfortably Smug]

That was the story. He Was telling. Well, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? That's how. Dude, that is a tell that someone's lying when. When their brain was starting to tell the truth and they're like, wait a minute. And they have to like take a beat and try to figure out how to cover up the lies.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, oh, they're about to say,

[Comfortably Smug]

that was a hun. He got caught.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I just, I want to play the clip over time.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just because you can see his face

[Josh Holmes]

at the moment he realizes that he's like, yep, into it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. Wait, don't tell them this here.

[Josh Holmes]

Clip 4. Just one more time. And I'm not gonna bore you.

[Guest Singer]

I have friends who even today get primary care.

[Josh Holmes]

But for those of you on video,

[Guest Singer]

primary care, I myself at a younger age received.

[John Leganski]

Here we go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Pre treatment. Pre.

[Guest Singer]

I got STI checks at the Portland Planned Parenthood.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, you could see his face like 100%. This guy's just.

[Michael Duncan]

He should just stop lying because he's really bad at it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, he's just like.

[Josh Holmes]

He is what has been reported.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think he just enjoys it. It's just a love of the game. He's just lying because he just loves it.

[Josh Holmes]

We get a whole host of ladies there again with the backdrop of reports.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's a credible story because of that.

[Josh Holmes]

And first person testimonials about alleged sexual and physical assault of previous women and infidelity and all kinds of stuff all the last three weeks. And somehow there's 15 white ladies standing there with Planned Parenthood sides like, go, Graham. You have our best interests in mind. Dude, that's how broken the libs are.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like for the longest time, it's become a meme of like when you get a dude who shows up at these things and he's like, I'm an ally. I mean, that's like the number one sign of a predator. You know what I mean? If a dude slinks up and he's like, I'm an ally. It's like, okay, uh huh. Yeah, let's search this guy's record. Background check on this guy.

[Michael Duncan]

There is a great always sunny episode in which Dennis shows up to an abortion rally like that's pro women's rights. And it's precisely that. Smug. Like he's just trying to get laid.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a predator in a group that he has sort of pre cultivated to have some success. Yeah, it's so terrible. It's Awful. All right, so this is where my

[Comfortably Smug]

reluctance begins before we begin, for my mother and my mother in law who listen to the show.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Feel free to get that, like five minute fast.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, Mom. Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't want to do this.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're all wonderful folks.

[Josh Holmes]

None of us.

[Comfortably Smug]

This was Holmes pushing this.

[John Leganski]

No.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I think he should take responsibility.

[Josh Holmes]

Here's what this is about. We are a news and information opinion show and we cover politics. And it is important for people whether or not things are nice to hear or not to know what it is that these people have as a perspective on things. This is a gentleman that if you didn't take our word for it, you just saw to a nice rally with 15 women who was talking about the great women's health movements. Right. Deep respect for women, according to Graham Platner. I think it's incumbent upon us when something comes in the public domain to just give it a level set for an audience.

[Michael Duncan]

You, you did a really good job of defending this. That's.

[Josh Holmes]

I want you to know. I didn't say any of this. In fact, I don't even think I could conceive of what I'm about to read to you. But he did, and it comes from his Reddit account, the P Hustle. And this is the one that, what's his name?

[Michael Duncan]

Fetterman.

[Josh Holmes]

Fetterman's been trolling him about. He calls him P Hustle or whatever. So there's a post that's like, what's the most fucked up, jaw dropping, offensive joke that you know? Or whatever. And instead of telling a joke, Graham Platner. And I'm again, this is not my words. I am not saying this. He is. This is what he said. And I think it is of value for you to know this. I was eating out my grandmother and it tasted like horse cum. That's how she died.

[John Ashbrook]

Again, Surely there are 500 Democrats in the state of Maine who could run for office. How is it that this is their guy? How is it that this is their guy? Isn't there somebody there like they have other members of Congress and like there are people who are accomplished, who may not agree with our politics, who could run for office as the Democrat, and yet this is the guy they're putting.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'll say this. I really, like, feel like the unifying theme among what binds the Democrats at this point, like we saw on the show yesterday when we were talking about the unifying thing about all these Zorin candidates that won those primaries is they just hate America. They think, they say, like, they want to destroy America. They want to destroy Western civilization. To run as a Dem is essentially a race to be the most vile person alive.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

The most broken person alive. Which is crazy because like all these people come from like rich families and have had every luxury handed to them possible and they turn into the most, maybe it's a result of the most vile, disgusting, anti American people who. It's not that you don't want, it's not about, do you want them to run? It's like, should they be institutionalized? And that's what I feel like is the whole thing that whether it's Tel Rico, whether it's Platner, whether it's the Hamas caucus, all these people are basically the most vile, broken humans that can be found in this country. And that's what the progressive, not even progressives, that's what the left wing Marxist movement is now.

[Guest Singer]

Also.

[Josh Holmes]

Anything that you value or find comfort in, like their goal is just to destroy it 100%.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I do think there's something to what Smug said about, you know, that a lot of them came from really good backgrounds. But like, for these people, I think rebelling against their precondition of life is,

[Josh Holmes]

it's part of the gig.

[Michael Duncan]

It's part of the gig.

[Guest Singer]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I, I, I agree. You know, I don't know if I ever had a vision of Horse Seaman making it onto the program.

[Comfortably Smug]

I told you all he wanted to read it.

[Josh Holmes]

But in the context of it coming out of the mouth of a Senate candidate, I couldn't have foreseen that. That is an unforeseeable component that we have launched into here.

[Smash]

On the nationality.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's like you said, likely worst Senate candidate of all time.

[Josh Holmes]

Of all time. I mean, it's just incredible. But it's also amazing that he's what, six months on the scene from being on the national spotlight for being an asshole with a Nazi tattoo, and each and every week you got a new submission. I mean, where does the dossier end on this guy?

[John Ashbrook]

And Fetterman is the only Democrat who's like, I just don't think we're sending our best here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like that.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what blows me away.

[Josh Holmes]

All the rest of them have endorsed.

[John Ashbrook]

All of them are like, yeah, Platner, yeah. He said some things I don't, I don't necessarily. Well, you know, he's our guy. Let's send 15 to 20 women to stand behind him at a rally with pink signs and pretend like he actually cares. About women. Like, get out of here.

[Josh Holmes]

Horse, seaman, Nazis.

[John Ashbrook]

They ran over a female governor of the state.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I know.

[John Ashbrook]

Like he was the person instead of Janet Mills.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know. Well, it leads us to our question of the day here on Ruthless Friday program. We always ask you a question when you like and subscribe. Feel free to leave your answer. And we get back to the very next episode. The question of the day today is what's the worst joke you've ever heard?

[Michael Duncan]

Because this, I think I just heard it.

[Josh Holmes]

But that's the thing. When somebody prompts you for something like that, like I'll tell the Willie Nelson joke, you know, like that's the joke that I would go to because it's, it's funny. But this is not a joke. There's no punchline. There's no like, funny vignette. There's no like the Willie. Okay, for those of you who are not. Oh, geez, I'll tell you, we're going again.

[Comfortably Smug]

So for my mother in law five minutes and my mom do it another five.

[Josh Holmes]

What's the worst thing you can hear after giving Willie Nelson a blowjob? I'm not Willie Nelson.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a good joke. It is fun joke.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a world class joke. It's a world class joke. Now that I'd be like, you know, if Platner came up with that, I'd be like, oh, that's kind of funny. Maybe he's got like a different layer. This is not a joke. Anyway, we reach into your bag of jokes to find out what you have to say. Put them right there on the page and we'll get back to the very next episode. Hopefully we'll have a real spicy Tuesday as a result of all of that. When we come back, we're going to play a game. We saved it for Friday, King of the Hill. And then we've got a great interview and some variety right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, fellas, so we had something that happened here in studio this week that I think because of the professionalism of everyone involved may have gone unnoticed.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't think it went unnoticed.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it may have to the audience until right now, where it simply won't be. We're going to point it out in this clip here.

[Comfortably Smug]

I really believe this is the year

[John Ashbrook]

that the normal people are going to push back.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, go ahead.

[John Ashbrook]

What else should you learn out there on the trail?

[Comfortably Smug]

Go ahead.

[Michael Duncan]

Look at the sheer amount of liquid.

[Comfortably Smug]

So for our audio only listeners, I had just cracked a full can of Celsius. That's the interview with Marty o'. Donnell. Great interview, Great candidate. Everyone in Nevada, go support Marty. But we're in this interview and I cracked this like entire can. It was a completely full can of Celsius. We start the interview and I had like cut off Ashbrook. When Ashbrook's about to ask a question. I was like, no, go ahead. I knock over where you go. I knock over the entire can like a moron. But like what this clip doesn't do justice is like a lot of that can got out there on the table

[Michael Duncan]

and like onto the mics, onto the wires.

[Comfortably Smug]

It didn't get on the mic. It's this like pool of Celsius that's like spreading across the table. And like Marty is a super pro. Does not act like it's crazy that there's now a pool of Celsius. Ashbrook, absolute pro, doesn't make a scene, doesn't bring it up.

[Josh Holmes]

It is didn't even really flinch either. It was just kind of like, yep,

[Comfortably Smug]

super chill with it. His sheets on the were completely soaked. It continues. So here's the other thing is Wolf did a shoddy job. So if you'll notice, that table is not level. So it starts. The ocean of Celsius starts spreading back, okay. Towards us. And I noticed the table. I got saved. So the to the Celsius starts spreading towards the talent, right? And like this is getting our side of the table. And so I have like cat like reflexes. It's gonna start spilling on me. And I like, I carry a handkerchief. I like hit the table with it to keep it from like spilling on this entire time. Marty and Ashbrook are total pros. Not acting like I'm Dealing with. I've unleashed a pool of self when we finished that interview. Dude. So Matt, 60, 70% of this entire table is just under Celsius.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm just.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm just still taking in the guy who spilled the drink is saying, I have cat like reflex.

[Comfortably Smug]

I saved the day

[Josh Holmes]

for wolves, like under the diet.

[Michael Duncan]

But that's the.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that's the lesson here. It was the lesson that was learned is that, like, he did not do the correct job. Leveling table. When you assemble a table, you have to level it at the end or else you end up with this. I can't imagine if we had that guy put a pool table together. You know, you rack them up and it's all in the pockets 10 seconds later. But that was, you know, turning it. That was an attack on foolish. But, you know, thanks, Marty. Great candidate. Thanks, Astro.

[Smash]

For.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's totally cool when I just like put the entire table under a can.

[Guest Singer]

Really?

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, I can't believe I just did that. Oh, all right. Well, we had to spring that one back up. It's too good.

[John Ashbrook]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

You guys want to play a game?

[Michael Duncan]

Always.

[Josh Holmes]

So it's Thursday, game on Friday that we're playing King of the Hill signature feature presentation here on the program. And I believe I'm a contestant.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you're the defending champ with sharing my sherry.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's right, because I got a weak hiatus.

[Michael Duncan]

You did. Well, I mean, we couldn't play it without you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Gotta respect the belt.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the champion's the champ.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, champs the champ. And I'm bringing the old fat man. Oh, Steve Schmidt, you're playing my man against me. I am? Well, you can only have so many. You have sherry too. Jeez. Hoarding them over there.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I'm the judge. And I already am. Am frowning upon that. Oh, can't say I'm thrilled with that attitude.

[Josh Holmes]

Prejudging.

[Comfortably Smug]

What a.

[Michael Duncan]

What a great court. Let's go ringside.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from his own substack account, the return of the old fashioned Steve Schmitz. And now in the red corner, fighting from Twitter and who knows where, and current champion of the world, Commie Cherry Jacob.

[Comfortably Smug]

10 out of 10 every time.

[Josh Holmes]

The additional emphasis of when Steve's in the game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it's just.

[Josh Holmes]

He just lights up. Okay, Sharon Macheri is gonna lead this bad boy off. Your Honor, I call exhibit number five. That begins with a misuse of the Internet. And that she's, quote, tweeting herself. But this is one that I haven't actually heard in the public domain. Okay. Trump mysteriously got way more votes than down ballot Republicans only in swing states. While Kamala Harris mysteriously got way fewer votes than down ballot Dems only in swing areas. Karl Rove once allegedly told a whistleblower, if A state was within 3% on election night, you could cheat undetected.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this woman made a large part of her coming out party as it died in the wool. Progressive lib attacking Trump for suggesting 2020 was a problem. She is saying that he stole the 2024 election.

[Michael Duncan]

It couldn't be as simple as the states where the presidential campaign spen the money. They got the most votes and Kamala was hated the most. So she didn't get as many votes.

[Comfortably Smug]

It couldn't possibly be amazing how like that never occurred to her.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe a campaign had an impact on an outcome.

[Michael Duncan]

It's possible.

[Josh Holmes]

What an idiot.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like in Pennsylvania where Trump dropped 100 million attacking Kamala Harris.

[Michael Duncan]

Her numbers went down.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can you believe it?

[Josh Holmes]

It's nowhere like Vermont.

[Michael Duncan]

It was Carl, Roger.

[John Ashbrook]

Great.

[Josh Holmes]

State of Hawaii was totally consistent with registration.

[Michael Duncan]

Hilarious. Yeah, yeah, that's good one. Okay, well that kind of scrambles it a little here. It's such a. That's a great take.

[John Leganski]

Let's go.

[Michael Duncan]

Exhibit 12, please. So, you know, Steve's doing that thing again where he. He has the graphics for the warning, which I guess is his sub stack branded substack. I gotta say, you know, just as somebody who's made a lot of graphics in my time for social media.

[Josh Holmes]

Not a great one.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not a great one. It's just a ton of text to put on a graphic. But here's the tweet. History will judge this classic Steve Schmidt. History will judge these little men alongside Donald Trump not because they exercised independent leadership, but because they chose loyalty over candor, politics over strategy, and performance over statecraft. Subscribe to the [e-mail] hilarious that he just tags it at the end. He just tags the sub stack at the end. Apropos of nothing, I guess maybe you can read more of these ravings over there. But. Yeah, that's my submission.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is the really brutal part of this is that you did an amazing job highlighting how stupid Sherry's tweet was. Like he did 90. Like, because it was okay until you rolled up and just made like you should have been playing Sherry. Honestly, like, he always made it compelling.

[Michael Duncan]

He horns her.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think anybody ever.

[Comfortably Smug]

I. I think the thing is.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what? I'm with you.

[Ad Voice]

It.

[Michael Duncan]

This table is Lee's fault. The tech team, the tuck team, always gives him sharing.

[Comfortably Smug]

So, see, that was making good. So I think Duncan made good, good arguments just now. And. And that's why I'm going to give him round one.

[Smash]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Whoa.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow. I did not see that coming.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want the bailiff to maintain.

[Smash]

Hold on.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Josh Holmes]

We're gonna move around, make sure just so I have this right on appeal.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's no appeal.

[Josh Holmes]

There will be. Sherry's tweet defeated that of Steve Schmidt.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, no. I think. I think when it comes to is the people playing the game, it's not the content. We've all had to stretch content, good or bad.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. This is a new president.

[Comfortably Smug]

Duncan did a way better job presenting the case. And that's the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

So I should jump in if he has a particularly good tweet and make a good point and win the round for my competitor who is not have that tweet.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I think he just won round.

[Michael Duncan]

It's an interesting preference.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's why it's an interesting.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm interested.

[John Leganski]

I'm intrigued.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't wait to play this wild. I can't wait to play this way. This is a kangaroo court. You should be ashamed.

[Michael Duncan]

But in fairness.

[Comfortably Smug]

Is Ashbrook awake?

[Michael Duncan]

Someone get grandpa Holmes, in fairness, to leave. Grandpa, I helped you in round one only because the game is more important than who wins.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you. Well, I appreciate your integrity and commitment to the game. I wish you were judging.

[Comfortably Smug]

Duncan talking.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you.

[Comfortably Smug]

And we're gonna move on to round two.

[Michael Duncan]

Fantastic.

[Comfortably Smug]

Duncan Leeds.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you, judge.

[Josh Holmes]

Both of you suck.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, I want to stay on the theme of Steve Schmitz of stealing my victories.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Incredible graphic design work with submission number 15, please. Okay, I'm gonna read the tweet first. Donald Trump is blaming everyone else for his failures. Biden, Obama, mysterious vandals. I break down why Trump is not fit to serve as President of the United States. Wow. What a unique take on the eve of America's 250th anniversary. And then he links to the YouTube. But what I really love about this submission, the reason why I am playing it in this game, is in the graphic. It says not fit to serve, and then it has a giant arrow to Donald Trump, just in case. In case you thought maybe Steve was talking about himself. You must know he means Donald Trump, in case that was not clear.

[John Ashbrook]

Does he have his eye on 28?

[Comfortably Smug]

I really don't know. That graphic is hilarious. I want you to know, I. I'm not the guy who's nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm not. Not fit.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's.

[Josh Holmes]

He's not fit.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that like a shattered American flag in the back? Like, what is that?

[John Ashbrook]

It's a.

[Michael Duncan]

It's overwrought. The amount of graphic design that went into this. It's completely.

[Comfortably Smug]

Also, I love how even for himself, he chose such a horrible photo. Like, he looks like there.

[Josh Holmes]

Just like, in fairness, he doesn't have

[Comfortably Smug]

a lot of work. He doesn't have, like, a great angle to pick from.

[Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not like, wear a Hamas mask and you'd be better off. Okay. Again, I'm going to go into the territory that I have not heard.

[Smash]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Which I find to be compelling. Who knows? With this particular court? Exhibit 4. Trump brags about the billions he saved on Social Security during the pandemic when he killed all the grandmas and grandpas.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a weak take. Are you kidding?

[Josh Holmes]

That's a week.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can we pull that graphic?

[John Ashbrook]

What?

[Comfortably Smug]

Look at that. 1443 views. Dude, it didn't. It didn't track, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Wait, now we're doing views?

[Comfortably Smug]

This is.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, this is outrageous.

[Comfortably Smug]

Also, I want to say this is a fixed. Council is out of pocket.

[Josh Holmes]

This is fixed.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude is out of control.

[Michael Duncan]

Where's the bailiff?

[Josh Holmes]

The bailiff is rightly sitting on his hands.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is this correct?

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, he's turned into a jock.

[John Ashbrook]

I just think it's funny. I want it to keep going.

[Comfortably Smug]

So I have to be honest. I. I think, man, there's more justice in him. This is back to back rounds. This is the old fat man. This is a W for Duncan. This is a W for Steve Schmidt. Let's go. And tremendous victory. Michael Duncan did an incredible job today.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is how you do it, folks. That is how it is done.

[Josh Holmes]

I think.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think. I think you did a terrible job.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an important moment, especially when you have Sherry.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's. You've got the cheat code and you still can't pull.

[Josh Holmes]

It's.

[Michael Duncan]

He didn't even listen to either of the tweets.

[Josh Holmes]

Is not like, no idea. He just accused Trump of murdering every elderly person in the country. He was like, weak.

[Michael Duncan]

I win.

[Josh Holmes]

And then in the context of things that never happened, that he was saving.

[Comfortably Smug]

So just a tremendous win by killing people by Michael Duncan there.

[Josh Holmes]

Let me just say, I think it's an important moment for the court in that it can go one of two directions. It can be completely lawless from here on out.

[Michael Duncan]

I feel like it has been for

[John Ashbrook]

a while pretty well.

[Josh Holmes]

I intend to maybe explore a further edge of that envelope when I have the next opportunity. And we'll see who the competitors are.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I mean, I'm going to be a competitor. I did nothing to you.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you did. You stole my win.

[Michael Duncan]

I didn't do anything. All I did was play the game.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all outrageous. Makes you want to drink.

[Michael Duncan]

It does.

[Josh Holmes]

And when you do, you need ZBiotics. It's a new game changing product that we use here on the Ruthless variety program before every big night out. It is. It's fantastic. We vouch for it. We've used it time and time again. We love it, don't we? Smug.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right. And the reason we love it is because it works. And it works because lots of folks, when you have a big night out, you think when they come home, if I chug some Gatorade, if I drink like three glasses of water, I'm gonna be fine. But you still feel terrible in the morning. And the reason is, it's not about dehydration, folks. See, what happens is when you drink alcohol, your stomach breaks it down and there's these toxic little byproducts, and that's what's making you feel bad. The good news is Zbiotics knocks it right out. So you have a little zebiotics before you go out, you enjoy and you end up feeling great in the morning.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's so easy to do. It's just a little vial. You can bring it with you when you travel. We travel a lot for work and for play.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And we always bring Zebiotics with us.

[John Ashbrook]

And we always say, there is no tomorrow without ZBiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. Smash. Smash routine. Go to ZBiotics.com ruthless to learn more and get 15% off your first order. When you use Ruthless at the checkout, ZBionics is backed with a hundred percent money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, head to ZBionics.com Ruthless and use the code Ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. All right, we got a great interview coming up, but there's one little piece of variety that I found totally compelling. There's a lot of soccer going on and the announcers, there's flavor to it. They do good stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

There's some artistry.

[Josh Holmes]

This one was electric because of the context. Clip 5.

[John Ashbrook]

But as we know, the English historically struggle here in Massachusetts.

[Josh Holmes]

So what happens here today, that is incredible lying.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's America 250 right there.

[Josh Holmes]

Great take on America 250.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, what I love about it is, this is our World Cup. Let's enjoy it. Let's tell some goofs.

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's have some fun. I mean, there's so much to this when it comes to the commentating and all the discourse around the game itself that is foreign to us.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Everything from the, you know, commentators like Thierry Henry to, like, the way they're forcing us to pronounce some of the country names wrong. That's the wrong pronunciation. We're here in America. Like, is this broadcast for the people of Turkey? We gotta call it Turkey.

[Ad Voice]

Come on.

[Guest Singer]

Wrong.

[Michael Duncan]

Wrong. I mean, like, look, I get it. Like, you're trying to reach the international audience as the biggest fans of the game, I guess, or whatever.

[Josh Holmes]

They're probably not watching the English broadcast.

[Michael Duncan]

Probably not. I'm just saying they're probably not, you know, So I just don't like it now.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't care for it either, but I love what that guy.

[Smash]

Love it.

[Josh Holmes]

Great, Great stuff. All right, we got to get to our interview. So you probably haven't heard John Leganski before he ran the floor, in fact, was the youngest guy to run the floor in the House of Representatives during a very tumultuous time during the speakership of Kevin McCarthy. And he's written a new book and has great stories and perspective to tell about all that. Want to welcome to the program an old friend, someone we've known for a long time here on the Ruthless Variety Program. It is his first appearance, however, John Leganski. How are you, sir?

[John Leganski]

Great to be here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Leganski, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Sausage King of Chicago.

[John Leganski]

That's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right. I did ask the publisher about your title, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Leganski]

Logansky, how the Sausage Is Made. It was too late in the printing process to change.

[Josh Holmes]

It was.

[John Leganski]

But maybe a sequel. I think that could be a great sequel.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, if you end up doing another, just take it under strong advice.

[John Leganski]

Absolutely.

[Josh Holmes]

So we worked together and had been in similar circles for a lot of different years on Capitol Hill. And you have decided to take a different jot in life and become an author until what I have been told, I haven't been able to read this whole thing yet, but I've been told is one of the most compelling under the dome stories that we've heard in a long time.

[John Leganski]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's just start there. What gave you the motive? I mean, obviously everybody who works on Capitol Hill, particularly in a leadership position, has thought at least once a week, if I could only write this down, people would not believe it.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You decided to.

[John Leganski]

Yes. It was a bold move, but I sat back after what happened, how it all went down, and I said, I have the beginning, middle and end of this story. I think that's the hardest part. And I don't think this is a tell all. This is not a salacious. I could have written that book, you're right. But I wanted to write a through line of what it takes to become speaker of the House in the modern era. I think it's the most fascinating election in our politics. You have to get 80 million Americans to vote for you to be president or vice president. You only need 218 to be speaker of the House. That's less than when it takes to win a class president race or school board race. And they're the third highest person in the land, second in line to the presidency. We got a lot of scholarship about our presidents and those campaigns. There's not that many books about being speaker. Everyone watched the 15 ballots in 2023. There were millions of people tuning in around the world. I had a Romanian legislator say she recognized me from those votes.

[Smash]

Hilarious.

[John Leganski]

Pope Francis told Kevin, we had an audience. Them we were watching at the Vatican, those ballots. It's somewhat similar to electing a pope.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. In a conclave, just waiting for the white smoke.

[John Leganski]

Exactly. So people were clearly captivated by this political endurance test. And so I just thought that was a unique moment in our history. I wanted to record it. I thought it was a story worth telling. And again, like you said, it's an under the dome front row seat from a staffer's point of view about how the House works in the modern era.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't imagine. I mean, look, you have to have a moment to sort of decompress from all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And provide some perspective before you actually put pen to paper. You took a little time to sort of gather your thoughts and your notes, and then you're like, no, I'm going to do this.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it helped.

[John Leganski]

I had three months in between the Speaker's office ending and my new job. I'm at Harbinger Strategies now, lobbying firm downtown with some of our friends. But the Speaker's office was nice enough to pay all of us McCarthy staff for those three months. To the end of the year because we obviously did not know we were going to be able to have a job unexpectedly. So that was kind of my advance. It was winter months, I couldn't golf, I didn't have much else to do. And that was where I channeled kind of my efforts into writing a first draft. At the time, I didn't think it was going to be a book or. No, it was going to be book. I just knew I wanted to have this stuff down on paper.

[Josh Holmes]

Like for history purposes.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly, because you're a witness to history at the time. And it seems like in a situation like this, when Kevin McCarthy's speaker and you know, there's that endurance test of is he going to make it on the vote? That it's sort of like a rubber necking exercise for the majority of people who follow politics. They're like, what is this? Like, this is crazy, but like they don't get to see the inside story of how all this comes together. And you're sort of witnessing all of this thinking to yourself, I got like this. This is like not just a book, it's sort of therapy for this, I bet this part of your life.

[John Leganski]

Yes, it was very therapeutic, but also you said historical. This was the first multi ballot election for speaker of the House in a century. It was the longest Speaker's election since the Civil War. So there was literally nobody we could even consult with who had gone through this before. Right. We had to come up with, you know, inspiration from far flung places. But that was part of it is. And I think this could become more of a norm. I don't want it to, but I could see speakers elections becoming more contentious in the years to come. If for nothing else, though, like I said, I wanted the future Logansky that's in that office and running the floor for the, you know, soon to be speaker to have some sort of playbook to follow because we had nothing to go off of. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So you're running the floor for Kevin McCarthy. This whole thing goes down, obviously a very raucous conference. In this particular moment in time. You had to always, I mean, even from the beginning of Speaker McCarthy's tenure, there was always this group of troublemakers, so to speak, who were just like constantly making life uncomfortable for you all trying to get everybody on the same page for everything thing. You did your very best to try to keep that at bay and did it for longer than I think most people thought possible. But this whole thing comes down now and you're in the moment where you realize this is, like, gonna be a fight, and an existential one. I gotta imagine, like, the blood pressure is pretty high at this stage.

[John Leganski]

Absolutely. Absolutely. I lost ten pounds that week. I don't have ten pounds to lose. People deal with stress different ways. That was mine. I just kind of stopped eating. I subsisted on smoothies for a couple of days. You know, we learned a lot, though, in 2015, Kevin ran for speaker and came up short that time. I think we had the votes at that time, but he decided to step back and said, I'm not going to put the conference through another tough vote after John Boehner left. For my own sake. We did not make that same call in 2023. This was, you know, no holding back, nothing to lose. We're never gonna quit. And that was what Kevin said in the morning of the first vote. He said, I don't care if I have to find my last five friends here. I won this majority. We're gonna fight it. I'm never leaving. I'm never leaving. That said, and you'll find out in the book, there were moments of doubt. You know, the second day of votes, we came into the office and I felt this. I texted a colleague, I said, it feels like the walls are closing in. I just didn't feel like there was a way out. And Kevin had a conversation with some of our senior staff and said, guys, I think we need to talk about a will, putting a will and testament, last will and testament, in place here, who could be or should be speaker if it's not us? And it wasn't a long conversation, but it injected some urgency into us to

[Josh Holmes]

say, you're like, oh, gosh, this could fall apart.

[John Leganski]

And we kept hearing that all week. You know, there's gonna be five that leave you on this ballot. There's gonna be 10 that leave you on this ballot. And, you know, I was fearful of that. Thankfully, never happened. But that was in the back of our minds. Is Congress abhors of acting vacuum.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Leganski]

And that was a vacuum. And I didn't think we had much longer to hold out before they said, you know, you gotta. You gotta pack it up. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

How much of this, you know, thinking of those folks who were opposing McCarthy on all of those ballots, how much of this was on principle and how much of this was just personal?

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know.

[John Leganski]

Yeah. I sort them into two camps. One of the books, chapters is called the Opposition, and I have two camps. There's the. The maybe Kevin's and then the Never Kevin's. Okay. The maybe Kevins are your folks like Chip Roy, who I think was like the center of gravity in the Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry, Andy Harris, others I think they are, and were trying to get more influence for their group. And that's another dynamic I think we're have to watch in the years to come where the House is becoming kind of a parliamentary system. That's what that week was really about, in my opinion, was it was us trying to cobble together a majority like other parliaments do around the world, because we had 200 or so Republicans that were traditional and then 20 or so Freedom Caucus, America first, however you want to characterize them. So there was a group of that, that was maybe call it 10 to 15, who I thought were working in generally good faith to try to just get more influence for their group.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Leganski]

Then there was the last five or six, the Never Kevins, that was Matt Gates, that was, you know, Andy Biggs, et cetera, where I still don't even really know what their objection was, but they just, just. It was nihilism.

[Michael Duncan]

It was.

[John Leganski]

I'm a. No, I'm just going to say any other name than Kevin. I want to cause chaos. And so we had to kind of cut around them, but there was nothing that they wanted they could give. It was definitely a personality driven thing. And so we kind of had them as a cancer that we needed to extract.

[Josh Holmes]

For the listeners who aren't familiar with leadership elections, I mean, the House and the Senate operate very, very differently in this regard. And that the leader of the Senate. Senate is simply elected by a majority of their colleagues and that is it. Yes, speaker of the House is elected by the entirety of the House of Representatives. In the case that you found yourselves in, you have a united Democratic opposition to anything that the Republicans want to do. Something that persists to this day. I mean, you could cure cancer and you'd have a united Hakeem Jeffries conference in direct opposition to that very thing. And so what you're dealing with is just almost unanimous support of your own conference in order to just simply elect a Republican speaker of the House, whomever that might be, which is a wild proposition. I'm so glad you wrote this book because of that, because I don't think that component of American politics gets discussed enough.

[John Leganski]

Yeah, and it's definitely more acute on our side of the aisle. I mean, the House Republican Conference is a cannibalistic bunch. We chew up and spit out our leaders. You know, Newt Gingrich, a man I admire, he gave an acknowledgment and a blurb for this book. He led Republicans out of the wilderness from 40 years and they discarded him and took this, you know, Boehner, Paul Ryan, Kevin. You know, it's just, it's a cannibalistic bunch. I do note, however, in the book, you know, the, the one change that we could make if we want to get away from this system is you could do something similar to the Senate where you make the speaker just the longest tenured member, like your Senate president pro tem, and they're just ceremonial and you vest all the power and the budget and the staff and the majority leader, and then they're just subject to a simple majority ballot. We might have to get to that point at some day because you can't have your leader be subject to, you know, having 100% unanimity every day of the week.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and in large part because of what a legislative body. I mean, there are certain trains that need to run no matter what in order to keep your American government open. And if you are leading the majority conference, you have to make the requisite sacrifices and compromises in order to make those trains run. No matter how good you are or bad you are, that has to be done. It's why it's like one of the most thankless positions in politics. And both sides almost by definition have to hate you because your job is to make things happen. And nobody wants to make things happen that aren't like exactly what they want.

[John Leganski]

Well, we always joke. There was always the hope. Yes vote, no caucus. They knew we couldn't default on our debt.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Leganski]

We do not want a global meltdown of the world economy, but they just don't want to vote for it and answer for it back home. But they're happy to let you vote for it and do it. And even Matt Gaetz said this about our debt limit deal with Joe Biden. Biden, just the largest deficit reduction bill in history. He said it's like a kidney stone. You just gotta pass it and move on. I mean, they get it. They know in their heart of hearts we gotta do these things. We can't have the government close forever. We can't default. They just don't want to vote for it and answer for it.

[Josh Holmes]

And like really a sociopathic, like behavior though, if you think about it.

[John Leganski]

My lawyers have told me not to

[Michael Duncan]

comment on his psychological, on the advice of counsel. But it does lead me to, I guess to another question. You're talking about how we've sort of become parliamentary system here. And you know, this has been a problem on the Republican side. But I look around the country at these DSA Democrats, New York winning all these primaries, and I have to wonder, given redistricting and the new census and. And where the maps are and how small the actual competitive parts of, you know, the congressional map are, like, probably thin majorities here for the foreseeable future. And you have to wonder, is the Kevin McCarthy situation with all the ballots the new normal moving forward?

[John Leganski]

I think it very well could be. And the elections we saw this week in New York, I have New York Democrats telling me, don't worry, Hakeem will get them. I can tell you in that office, they are sweating.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[John Leganski]

We were sweating every single time we heard a member come out and say, they're not going to support Kim, Kevin. And that night when the election happened in 2022, and it was much tight, they didn't even call the House that night. That's how tight it was. We're sitting there and doing the math, and I'm going, oh, boy. That's when I started taking the notes, because I said, this is going to be a dog fight, you know, so, yes, I think you're exactly right, Duncan, that this is going to be a feature of our politics moving forward. I have said the Democrats are about 10 years behind the Republicans in terms of the evolution. And so let's say they're in 2016 right now where we were, and that's the evolution they're going through of a more brash bul. Not the vision I want, but it's a socialist party, and trust me, they want power. They're not coming here just to have that label and serve. They have aims. Nancy Pelosi had to negotiate for her job when she ran again for it. That was one of the comments I had in the book from one of her top floor aides. We were talking in December and I said, I think we're gonna get there. He said, I think so, too. It just depends what you have to give up. And I said, and how many ballots it takes. He said, oh, no, if it goes more than one, you're done. And I thought that was very instructive from Nancy Pelosi's staff that that's how she thought about it, that if you went more than one ballot, you're toast.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, you need to pre negotiate this situation.

[John Leganski]

You have to, because they have maximum leverage on the floor.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Leganski]

And so we tried, I mean, we tried all over Thanksgiving, Christmas to, like, come to a peaceful solution that didn't end up happening. But Jeffries or whoever leads the Democrats in the future, and you, all it takes is 4, 5, 6, Democrat, Socialists of America with demands. And you're gonna have to go through them. You're gonna have to cobble that majority together. And Republicans are not gonna help.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, Loganski, you're a. You're an institutional guy. You're a House guy. You know, I'm not sure. And, you know, I like to throw stones across the. You know, bring them. Did it ever occur to you, as you're trying to negotiate with these folks, that you're sitting across from somebody who's like, just cross side and staring and screaming nonsense at you, that you're like, my God, this is American democracy.

[John Leganski]

So, yes, I kept those thoughts to myself. I'll tell you, the most useful advice I got was from Andy Card, former White House Chief of Staff to President Bush. I had a really lovely conversation with him. He didn't need to do it. He spent like an hour on the phone with me. When I was a young floor director, I was actually the youngest floor director in House history. I was 25 years old. I didn't know what I was doing right. I was looking far and wide for help and advice and counseling. And I had a really nice conversation with him. And I said, these guys are just. They're getting me down, man. They're breaking me down. They're so frustrating to deal with. He told me a story about President Bush had a big vote in the Senate, and I think it failed by a couple votes. And that night, they had a movie night at the White House, and some of those senators that voted against him were there. And Andy went up to him and said, Mr. President, do you want me to have these guys removed? And Bush said, andy, we didn't get him today, we might need him tomorrow. Yeah, you know, and the second thing he told me that stuck with me for forever was, guess what? They got a pin. They were elected by their constituents. They're there. You have to work with them. On the flip side, Kevin did joke. He's like, I'm the only CEO in America that doesn't get to pick my own employees.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Leganski]

That's not the greatest place to be. And we found that out. But those are the pieces of advice I kept, is that, you know what? You never write someone off permanently, and they have a right to be there. And so, you know, we're. We're the staff. We give the best advice and counsel we can, but they're the members. They have to work it out. They have to vote on it and live with the consequences.

[Josh Holmes]

How much of it is you think downstream, just the chaos component is just downstream of bifurcated media culture, Internet culture, the change in news and information consumption. Because forever these institutions were largely governed by the relationships that happened under the dome at lunches. You know, it didn't mean that, like Newt didn't get thrown out after giving him everything they wanted, but it was, it was largely predictable in that they were dealing with these people.

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And you could speak to people directly.

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And then somewhere along the way, there became a high level incentive for people to just sort of air grievances direct to consumer.

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Essentially. And create its own constituency well outside the House. Like, do you think that is something that has now kind of provided this new impetus behind crazy leadership fights and everything else?

[John Leganski]

Absolutely. I write about that. The last chapter of the book's called One Final Thought. It's kind of just a summary and a exposition on how I think the House looks and how it's. Where it's going. And I write about that. Right. Where. Especially in the House where you have, you know, 210 now members in either party that are completely safe.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Leganski]

Whoever they are or the D is in that district is gonna win. And so the only incentive is to cater to your primary electorate. Carried it to your base. And what, what sells to them these sugar high votes? You know, motions to vacate, motions to expel, motions to censure, contempt, et cetera, et cetera.

[Josh Holmes]

It's never to get anything done. No, I mean, an accomplishment is not something that you market Right. To a primary base of either party.

[John Leganski]

Really? Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's. What is that sugar high that gets the small dollar donations? That gets me on TV that night, that gets me, you know, in front of the base in a. A fighting posture. I contrast that with Marcy Kapter, a Democrat who actually contemplated voting for Kevin. No one knew this until I wrote this book that she actually almost crossed over to vote for Kevin on one of the last ballots we were stalled on. If she had changed her vote to president or voted for us, we would have won.

[Josh Holmes]

But she like, oh, that was information that would have been useful yesterday.

[John Leganski]

It would have been nice. But, you know, she's the longest serving female representative in history and she took. It took three Congresses for her to enact the World War II memorial legislation on the National Mall. Think about that. Six years for probably the most sympathetic cause in our nation. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's mom and apple pie. If there Ever was one.

[John Leganski]

And that's how much hard work and determination it takes these days if you want to actually get policy. And there's a lot of good people, I hope I recognize them in this book. Some of the folks that you don't hear about that aren't out there throwing bombs, but they need reinforcements, they need better members, they need better staff who are committed to doing the job job. And it takes again a long time to get change. But that's what I think the job ought to be as opposed to this plane to the base scalp sell. Division is profit.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, yeah, I mean there's, I think it's a double edged sword. Right. Like there is certainly a value in this age of our politics where people feel like politics has been decentralized and taken out of the smoke filled room and brought to them on social media and all these things. And they feel more connected to their member of Congress, whether they're speaker, the House or you know, a backbencher. And there's value in that, I think, in our politics. But at the end of the day, it's a team sport.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a team. It's the ultimate.

[Michael Duncan]

And so like that is the balancing act if you hope to govern our country. So I have to wonder, is there anything you look back on in this whole fight that you do differently?

[John Leganski]

Well, I do contemplate. You know, we had a lot of folks tell us Kevin's approach was you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[John Leganski]

That was just the approach. Approach. Some of that was preordained by the margin. Like I said, you can't write off too many before you're in the minority party.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Leganski]

They did raise a couple times, like no retribution. Right, no retribution. And we contemplated at the end putting a rule in our conference protocols that if you voted for or supported a motion to vacate without support of the conference, then you weren't a member of the conference anymore.

[Smash]

Right.

[John Leganski]

You lose your committee assignments, you're out on your own. I think that's just a temporary solution. No again, if they just decide to vote no on the floor every day, yeah, we're stuck. So you're sitting in the office and you have no power. You know, that's not worth it. I think we made the right call. Honestly. I think Kevin's legacy is going to be very favorable because the House I think in some ways needed to touch this stove and see how dangerous it is to have speakers flipped out on a whim. You know, we were paralyzed for three weeks. Israel was attacked the very next weekend that was October 7th. And the House could do nothing. So I think some of those members had to see that and experience it. And I applaud Kevin for falling on a sword the way he did and taking it and saying, I see the reality. These guys aren't going to vote for it if I have my name on it. But you know, the, the 30 day government CR that was ostensibly the reason we got kicked out. They did seven more over the next two years. So clearly that wasn't the problem.

[Josh Holmes]

Wasn't it?

[Smash]

Right.

[John Leganski]

It was something else. And he.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't policy.

[John Leganski]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

And it wasn't ideological. And that's what I find so fascinating about it. We talk about this a lot and

[John Leganski]

had to deal with.

[Josh Holmes]

With it in the Senate side when I was there in that. There's a basic. You become kind of a student of psychology.

[John Leganski]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

When you have to deal with these.

[Michael Duncan]

What's the real thing we're talking about?

[Josh Holmes]

What are we actually. What's really going on?

[John Leganski]

That is what I would do differently is I would have majored in psychology. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

There you go.

[John Leganski]

At Stanford. And I write that you would be much better off having a psychology degree than a political science degree because that's all this job is. And that's what I hope folks start to take away from the book as well is it's not median voter theorem or whatever they taught us in our textbooks. It is person to person retail politics, knowing what buttons to push at what time. You know, some people need to have a joke and put your arm around their back and slap them. Some people need to be yelled at and say, you know, this is ridiculous. You're voting no. Kevin was a pro at that. There's a lot of pros that are still there doing that. That's what it is. It's just people at the end of the day. And if you can understand people, you

[Josh Holmes]

can understand politics and you can get things done. I find it my takeaway from having a. Not the same by any stretch, but a similar job over the years was it really broke down to me in like one simple thing. Either somebody had experience in team sports or they did not.

[John Leganski]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean? And it's like you could tell almost instantaneously by somebody's reaction whether they had any youth sports growing up or not. Because it's the idea that in order to get to a goal that we mutually agree upon is the thing that we need to do requires all of us getting to that spot and pulling our own weight to try to do that. And then you would always come across a portion of a conference that seemed not to conceptualize that at all and in fact ran in the other direction every single time you tried to cobble things together. And that was the basic challenge. Always confused me as to why these people wanted to get into Congress.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Where it's like, why you're in a people business. Like it's the ultimate people business. Democracy, for crying out loud. Like it's the ultimate people business. And if you don't like people, what are you doing here? And that was always my takeaway. And I felt like you guys encountered that in a very real way and that some people were just, just made to say no.

[John Leganski]

It's funny you say that because we, we had comments. We're like, oh, he was a swimmer growing up. He was a cross country rider. He was a golfer. I'm a golfer too, but like a solo golfer, one of those youth golfers. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

There's no team sport.

[John Leganski]

Yeah. So we did have that comment and some staff as well. Where it is. It's a team sport. You got, it's, you know, that's the only way you stick together and get wins. And that's one of the things I hope our party takes as well, is when you stick together. I'm fine if you want to pull the bill more to the right. I got no problem with that. Right. I think we have to make changes in this country. Country. But at the end of the day, our best leverage is if we can put up 218 votes on our own to pass a bill. Because that's how you enforce your deal.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Leganski]

That's how you can throw in something at the last minute and if the minority party walks, you say, okay, I got the votes. That was always one of the frustrations I thought we had is we went into a lot of negotiations with one arm tied behind our back.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, they were going to get something out of it because you couldn't do it on your own.

[John Leganski]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It's amazing. This is a good education. Everybody should check this thing out. Glory, Grief and the Gavel. It's an inside guide to running for the speaker of the House. John Leganski, I can't thank you enough for writing it. I can't wait to read it. Great summer.

[John Leganski]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having the program. I appreciate it. It's on Amazon, everywhere our books are sold. And let me know what you think, Let me know what your viewers think. I'd love to hear the reaction and this is a book for your listeners. This is the book I would have wanted to have read when I was a senior at Stanford. Coming back to D.C. learning the players, learning the, the, you know, procedures from a. I think a very informative, humorous, at times conversational way. This is. This is how you understand how the house works. And I can't wait to hear the reaction.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you're the man, Leganski. Good to see you, bud.

[John Leganski]

Guys, thank you so much.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you.

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[Josh Holmes]

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[John Ashbrook]

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[John Leganski]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Michael Duncan]

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[Josh Holmes]

All right.

[Guest Singer]

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[Michael Duncan]

see you on the roof.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, what a great personality this guy is. You know, the first time you meet him, you're like, you're a cop, right? Leganski, you're a cop. He's like, no, no, no, not a cop. Worked in Congress. And you're like, what happened? Duncan has so many great jokes about how the sausage is made and everything. It's just like this is a book that you definitely need to read if you want to find out what was going on behind the scenes all those years in the House of Representatives.

[Smash]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And sort of irrespective of your opinion of Kevin McCarthy, I'm sure there's plenty of people in the listenership or viewership who are like, I'm glad he's gone, or whatever. But, like, clearly this was a historic moment. And it's a moment that I think Informs and Logansky spoke to this kind of our future in so many ways. Totally. And that's really a nonpartisan thing. It's about the nature of the job and the House of Representatives itself. And so I find that moment fascinating.

[John Leganski]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

If he wasn't a Republican, you could see this being taught at a 400 level course in universities around the country. But of course, his voting registration probably prohibits that particular material in universities in this country. But it's a great book. You gotta check it out. You can get it wherever books are sold. Remember our question of the day? What's the worst joke you've ever heard? And I'm looking forward to the responses.

[Michael Duncan]

I would also like people to comment on the jurisprudence of Comfortably Smug. I support him and I bet our listeners and viewers do too. Go to YouTube, there's no chance. Leave that comment and support our friend Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

The one thing I know about our listenership is their commitment to fairness. And what they saw here today was an affront.

[Smash]

This.

[Michael Duncan]

This court is most fair when smug is right.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's correct.

[John Ashbrook]

The other thing they know is that the judge changes chairs every single week. Oh, yeah, you're a. I was the bailiff this week, so.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're a bailiff.

[John Ashbrook]

A lot of great things over the next few days, fellas. You just gotta show me how much you want to win.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, Jesus.

[Josh Holmes]

The hell is that? What's that proposition?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm worried about that. We gotta call hr.

[John Leganski]

Cass,

[Josh Holmes]

take the L. Okay? It's been a hell of a week. Thanks, fellas. With that, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to our guest, Gansky, and thank you to the listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.